The recent growth and evolution of messaging services has resulted in several messaging formats and protocols, including for example, the Short Messaging Service (SMS) and related Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS), and the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) protocols. The SMS format permits text only limited length messages based on a specified character set. The EMS format is based on the SMS text format and permits minimal text formatting, low-resolution black and white and color images and simple sounds, for example, the I-Melody format of the Infrared Data Association (IDA). EMS will also enable animation that resides on the communications subscriber terminal. Some SMS-compatible subscriber terminals are able to receive unformatted EMS message text, but will discard images and audio information. Other SMS-compatible terminals will not be able to receive or interpret EMS messages, although some EMS-incompatible terminals maybe upgradeable. SMS and EMS messages are relatively small and intended to be transmitted in available bandwidth, without assigning a dedicated voice channel. MMS supports numerous types of media including text, images and video. MMS uses the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and the Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) format. MMS also requires the allocation of dedicated network resources in new generation communications networks, for example, 2.5 Generation Global System for Mobile Communications Generalized Packet Radio Service (GSM/GPRS) with Enhanced Data for Global Evolution (EDGE) networks and 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and 3GPP2 compliant networks.
Messaging protocol incompatibility has been addressed generally. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/0040300A1 entitled “Systems of Interoperability Between MMS Messages And SMS/EMS Messages And an Associated Exchange Method”, for example, discloses communications networks having a message gateway that interconnects different messaging servers, for example, EMS, SMS, MMS, Post Office Protocol (POP) messaging servers, etc. The message gateway receives all inter and intra-network originated messages and routes the messages to recipient terminals via the corresponding messaging server, e.g., via an EMS, SMS, MMS, POP server, etc. The message gateway includes an essential table of terminal profiles including the messaging format, for example, SMS, EMS, MMS, POP, etc., processing capabilities and corresponding server information for each terminal in the domain of the message gateway. The message gateway uses the terminal profiles to convert incoming messages to the format of the recipient terminal and routes the converted message accordingly.
The various aspects, features and advantages of the disclosure will become more fully apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon careful consideration of the following Detailed Description thereof with the accompanying drawings described below.